[UA] Voice your opinion on fossil fuel divestment

[Fiona Y Chen]

Dear Undergrads,

Tonight at 8PM, UA Council will discuss the official stance of the
undergraduate body on divestment from fossil fuel companies. Council
<http://ua.mit.edu/uacouncil> is the UA’s legislative branch and thus it
consists of representatives from each of the living groups (dorms, FSILGs,
and off campus) who ultimately represent you. In the past, the UA has used
these official policy stances to grant credibility to its advocacy efforts.
As one example, this past summer, the UA took the official stance that MIT
should rename Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day
<https://news.mit.edu/2020/mit-and-indigenous-peoples-day-0925#:~:text=With%20the%20endorsement%20of%20Academic,and%20voices%20in%20our%20community.>
and successfully used this vote to advocate for the change to
administrators.

A couple weeks ago, MIT Divest brought a resolution calling on MIT to
divest onto the table (attached
<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iMcBlDcUoZuxmzngilWD2wpNXmSJbaCvSEYEyURkGzE/edit>),
and tonight, Council will be deliberating and potentially voting. You
should have already received communications about this vote from your
Council representatives, but on top of that, if you would like to voice
your opinion on whether or not MIT should divest from fossil fuels, we
strongly encourage you to reach out to your Council representative today
and come to the Council meeting tonight from 8-9 PM ET. You can find the
name of your Council representative here <http://ua.mit.edu/uacouncil> and
the Zoom information for the meeting at the bottom of this email.

If you are interested in learning more about divestment, we have also
compiled some resources that you can look through:

   - An infographic
   <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DVPbmbCXtDfilLCcJxrZqTwrkeb2BtWT/view>
   briefly summarizing divestment at MIT
   - Spring 2015 debate hosted by MIT on the pros and cons of Fossil fuel
   Divestment <https://news.mit.edu/2015/debate-fossil-fuel-divestment-0410>
   - Three articles written by MIT Divest on the pros of ‘divestment’ over
   ‘engagement’
   <https://medium.com/mit-divest/a-list-of-articles-written-by-mit-divest-in-the-tech-7c6104184414>
   - Maria Zuber’s (VP of Research at MIT) response to divest
   <https://climate.mit.edu/posts/response-request-information-mit-administration-regarding-institutes-relations-fossil-fuel>
   (Spring 2020)
   - Article about MIT opting for fossil fuel ‘engagement’ over ‘divestment’
   <https://governorswindenergycoalition.org/mit-opts-for-fossil-fuel-engagement-over-divestment/>


Thank you all. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to
divest-questions at mit.edu.


Best,
Fiona Chen
She/her/hers
UA Officer on Governance

Zoom Link:
https://mit.zoom.us/j/94848054203
One tap mobile
+16465588656,,94848054203# US (New York)
+16699006833,,94848054203# US (San Jose)
Meeting ID: 948 4805 4203
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International Numbers: https://mit.zoom.us/u/adIAI3qsLH
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